K.C. Dinner Theater Closes

Dinner Playhouse Inc. is closing its Waldo-Astoria Dinner Playhouse when the current production, “Nunsense,” ends. Open run began Jan. 15. The company took over the shuttered movie theater in 1973 and had extensively remodeled it into a 350-seater.

Richard Carrothers, partner in the corporation with Dennis Hennessey, said, “The needs of the Kansas City market have outgrown the physical plant and the facility is in much need of repair.”

Last summer, he said, the air conditioning failed, costing $40,000 to repair. There also has been trouble with the heating plant. Coincidentally, the lease expires this year.

The company is building a dinner theater in a new shopping center development in the upscale suburb of Overland Park, Kan. No date has been set for an opening, but it is expected to be ready by the end of the year. It will be a larger, more efficient facility than the company’s first two theaters, which were makeovers of existing buildings. The first theater, Tiffany’s Attic, a remodeling of a former midtown laundry, continues in operation.